Urban Poverty and Health: Analyisis of Health Challenges and Coping Among Poor Households in Addis Ababa
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Date
2007-07
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The study focuses on the qualitative analysis of the dynamic linkage of poverty and health
in the urban setting, with a particular reference to Akaki and Teklehaimanot areas in Addis
Ababa. The findings strongly indicated that multi dimensional factors of poverty
perpetuate illnesses that are communicable and recurrent, deterring livelihood activities
and thus progressively intensifying poverty. The bidirectional linkage of poverty and
health is found to be entrenched in livelihood, environmental, and psychosocial contexts in
which people live and interact. Analysis of these contexts revealed that, insecure source
of livelihood caupled with poor living environment significontly influence how people
understand health, and thus their responses to health challenges. Although the two areas
represent distinct features of inner city and outskirt, the poverty and health challenges
faced by poor household were found to be similar in many ways among the two study
areas. Poverty seems to affects all members of households, but health outcomes were
found to be worse among women and younger children. The study also revealed how
poverty shapes aspiration and people's life priorities significantly affecting people's
disposition to health promoting activities. The study also attempted to gain insight into
how people's coping strategies are shaped by various, household, community and
institutional factors. Paar peaple were faund to rationally make such choices, depending
on who is sick, what illnesses, ond attitude towards various measures including modern
health care. People general.ly tended to be critical towards services provided in
government facilities, though such complaints were minimal in Akaki where health care
utilization is low. In the analysis of social capital, traditional social networks in which
people belong were found to have both positive and negative impact on health promoting
behaviour and coping with health challenges. In addition, the impact of non-government
organizations on people's predisposition to cope with challenges of health and poverty
were also assessed. The findings strongly indicate that most NGO actions have very little
impact on enhancing people's capacity to cope with poverty in a sustainable manner. In
fact the impacts of some NGO interventions were found to be detrimental to existing
traditional coping mechanisms. The recommendations of the study revolve around its
conclusion that serious consideration of these dynamic factors is imperative for health
policy to be effective in addressing the soaring urban health problems.
Key words: Urban, Health, Poverty, Perception, Coping
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Keywords
Urban, Health, Poverty, Perception, Coping